The lease on the O4B-mobile expires next week, so I've been car shopping for the past month. I really enjoyed my Jetta but am looking for a bit more style and oomph. My target car was something similar to the Audi S4, for example. However, I wanted to get something used, to avoid paying new car premium pricing. Anyway, I finally gave in to Wifey's urging advice and headed over to Carmax. They had several reasonable alternatives to choose from: '01 Audi A4, '01 BMW 325i, '01 Volvo S80; all of them around $20-22K. After much anguishing over the decision we decided on the BMW. Only to find (as we were walking into buy it) a shiny 2003 Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor Sport Sedan. This one only had 4K miles on it. It was $31K, but we decided to take the plunge since we felt it was a better over-all value than the BMW. It's decked out with features that make the new price of 5 months ago over $36K. Meanwhile, I get the full manufacturer's warranty on it and everything. Still even has that new car smell to it!posted by Tim at 10:53 PM